Hello Everybody in this great forum. I ve been building rods for a little over a year. I have completed 7 rods and put butt wraps on 5 of them. I have been building them for friends for cost of materials . My post is about asking others here what they use for butt wraps on rods that 1) look nice , 2) were simple enough to do at my level of experience , and 3) were not just hohum to look at . So far I have done a chevron , a diamond and a spider pattern . All were recieved quite well . I am wanting to progress in my skills but at the same time not wade out into to deep of waters if you get my gist . Do you guys have an order of simple to progressively harder wraps you followed as you learned? Any suggestions would be helpful. I do have Visual Wrap software now so I can play around with ideas with it.

Thank You
Steve

I’m a little behind you on this, looking forward to answers myself. What is the software you use?

Have you looked into marbling epoxy for the butt? I’ve seen some beautiful marbled butts.

Any tips for first time butt wrap? I’m planning to either wrap or marble a flippin stick butt this winter.

Hi El,
The software purchased was called Visual Wrap you can buy it several places I purchased mine at threadcentral.com . I have seen the marbling epoxy and it is indeed very nice looking . The only advice I have is KISS (KEEP IT SIMPLE .......) I got that from reading many posts and a couple of books. The first wrap I did was a Chevron ,it came out nice . Maybe to nice it kinda hooked me on wrapping . People see it and they really like it . Oh and if you dont have it buy a copy of Tom Kirklmans book " ROD BUILDING GUIDE " I use it every time I wrap a rod . I am no expert on the subject but I have had what I consider good results so far.

My utmost respect for those builders who have the patience and skill to do butt weaves. I did one, and that's it. I'm just not built for that degree of detailed work.

But one way I have found to really dress up rods is to use abalone. The new abalone is quite easy to use and can look spectacular. Not a weave, but very nice. The main thing with abalone is to measure precisely and then trust that the abalone in hot water is doing OK, just leave it there until the darkening of the backing goes almost across the sheet . It will stick just fine and you don't want to take it out too early.

Might be a problem for small diameter blanks, like low power fly rods. But for most rods, it works fine. After I apply it I put a tightly stretched wrap of electircal tape over it, with a layer of paper between the blank and the tape, and let it set overnight. Then CP at the edges to seal them.

Sponser Getbitoutdoors has the abalone that I use.

Hi guy's.

The only thing that limits what you can do on a rod is your imagination.


Tight Wraps & Tighter Lines.

Bob,

New Bern, NC.

Steve,
Tom K. ran an article “Cheater Wraps” in RodMaker magazine, and two issues later Mike Ballard offered “Eureka Grips and Handles”. To save Robert Guist the trouble of looking-up the issues (as he so often graciously does), they were Volume 24 / Issue 6 and 25 / 1. Both articles involve / utilize braided nylon cord with colored tracers to produce a faux butt wrap or durable butt grip. Both methods require removing the core of the cord; the braided sleeve is slid on the blank for the Cheater Wrap while the cord is spiraled onto the blank while flat for a Eureka Grip. Interesting concepts and worth a look. In your case, used as a butt wrap, the look will be less involved as a “real” thread wrap but will be immensely less time consuming. While I may not personally be a big fan of butt wraps, Mike's Eureka butt grip idea / method may just find its way onto one of my saltwater builds in the near future.

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Other options at your disposal
- tiger wrap
- fade wrap


Or dive on in other closed wraps. You’ve done a spider so you’re on your way. Do a Maze, or a StJohns. The single fish wrap is quite easy as is an American flag. Plenty of options

Thx for the ideas . The abalone is good looking stuff for sure . I will look into the cheater wraps . At this point I really like using thread it is time consuming but time i have . I like doing it for people most of us can't afford custom fishing rods so I make it affordable for them .

Your time has value. The art has value. Don’t undermine that. If you’re looking to provide affordable custom rods then use techniques that distinguish the rod as custom but don’t take a lot of time…. But certainly don’t spend the hours required on a custom closed wrap and sell it for fractions of what it should be

This is another option that doesn't look too hard and looks pretty cool. Dragon Scales wrap. I may give this a try in the future. I'm thinking a mesh drywall tape would work as the underwrap material. Very nice of you to do the custom work for family/friends at cost of materials. If you are having fun doing it that is most important. Enjoy! If you are able, post a few pictures of your wraps thus far as I'm always interested in seeing the cool stuff being created by folks.

[mudhole.com]

Ademir Romano's cross wrap patterns are thread by thread directions with multiple color options. Takes a bit of work to find them on the net. Wonderful bit of sharing the art.

Every once in a while I will use this Metallic Braid along with just regular thread...
It speeds up the process a bit. Its made by Gudebrod and is about 3cm in thickness.

Chris,
I’m not sure that Steve would be interested in the Gudebrod braid; at 3cm thick (1.18in), that would add a significant amount of bulk and weight lol. (0.3mm / 0.012in?)

Mark Talmo
FISHING IS NOT AN ESCAPE FROM LIFE BUT RATHER A DEEPER IMMERSION INTO IT!!! BUILDING YOUR OWN SIMPLY ENHANCES THE EXPERIENCE.

Mark Talmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chris,
> I’m not sure that Steve would be interested in
> the Gudebrod braid; at 3cm thick (1.18in), that
> would add a significant amount of bulk and weight
> lol. (0.3mm / 0.012in?)

Ha...Touché. 3mm width.

Steve;

The visual wrap is a great program to help you advance, as is Billy's book. Be prepared to make mistakes and start over. The abalone is a very sharp way to do what you are looking for but it takes a bit of practice. Marbling is a great way to enhance the rod on the butt or the space on a split grip. There is also a shrink wrap that goes over the blank and shrinks when you pour hot water on it. It resembles abalone but lacks the luster. I haven't seen them for sale in a while, but I haven't been looking for them. Contact me via email and I'll send you one to try. They remove easily if you decide you don't lilke it.



Mark

Ok guys great replies I must not have been clear in my original post . I DO WANT TO WRAP WITH THREAD . The purpose of giving to my friends at cost is to gain experience and they get a good deal. I understand the wrapping time is money in the end but for now I need experience . What I am specifically looking for are reccomendations on thread wraps that are a tad tougher than a diamond or chevron . But not to tough if that makes sense lol.The metalic braid looks interesting so does the dragon scales wrap . Mark thank you for the generous offer . I tried to post a photo of one of my wraps here but could not figure out how to do it . Again thank you all for your responses.

The first thing you want to do is take a diamond or chevron to a closed wrap. Then work on something with say, a plus-one spacing. This would be a good wrap to learn these type techniques from: [www.rodmakermagazine.com]

From there you can do just about any wrap via anyone's wrap sequence or even make up something of your own. Once you understand the progression involved, they're not necessarily hard, but they will take great care and patience to do well.

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Thanks Tom

I think I will give that fish a shot its pretty cool . One of the reasons I bought VisualWrap was because it calculates spacing for me . This will be a test to see if it works or not . Thanks again to all of you . Your input is invaluable .

Steve

In terms of TOF, consider just how much difference there is between the base and fore area of a closed wrap. On longer rods you may find very little difference in the area where butt wraps are usually placed. in this instances I never used TOF and had no problem getting threads to pack or spread by enough to easily fill the wrap. With a steeper taper, sure use the calculated spacing. Otherwise it's often not needed.

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